Over the years many different types of newspaper vending machines have been developed. One typical design allows the customer to open the access door after depositing the required amount of coins to obtain a newspaper. Once the access door is opened, however, the customer can simply reach inside and remove as many copies of the newspaper as the customer may desire. It is of the utmost importance to newspaper publishers and suppliers to solve the great losses in distributing newspapers that occur because of the easy access or the easy means of obtaining more than one newspaper from existing vending machines.
Existing vending machines are typically of a box configuration shape to accommodate a stock of newspapers to which the consumer has access to one or more newspapers as he wishes. This creates the problem of controlling the amount of newspapers sold. Frequently, the amount of money collected in the coin box does not correspond to the number of newspapers that have been removed from the vending machine.
Another problem that arises from the use of these conventional vending machines is the lack of control between the newspaper publisher or supplier and the route men who distribute the newspapers to the vending machines because when a monetary loss does occur, there is no way of knowing whether the loss occurred from the vending machine or was caused by dishonesty on the part of the route men. The problem becomes worse on the weekends when the newspapers run many coupon specials, and particularly on Sundays when newspapers are generally more expensive than the cost of the daily edition.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a newspaper vending machine that supplies one newspaper at the time.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a system which saves money for the suppliers, distributors and route men.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a vending machine system that can be used not only for newspapers but also for magazines and books.
It is a feature of the present invention that, after the customer deposits a coin, the door lock is released and the action of opening the door of the vending machine causes a single newspaper to be dispensed to a location accessible to the customer.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the newspaper vending machine operates more easily and with more control of revenue.